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This paper aims to explore the phenomenon of impulse buying in the fashion industry. The online and offline channels are compared to determine which is perceived as leading to more impulsive buying.

As the result of the literature review, three research questions are proposed and examined through an online self-administered survey with 212 valid responses.

Results show that the offline channel is slightly more encouraging of impulse buying than the online channel; factors that encourage online impulse buying explain this behaviour to a greater extent than do discouraging factors; social networks can have a big impact on impulse buying.

Findings are limited by the sampling plan, the sample size and the measurement of some of the variables; only one product type is analysed. Further research is needed to confirm that shipping-refund costs and delayed gratification (traditionally, discouraging factors of online buying) encourage online impulse buying; clarify contradictory results regarding the role of online privacy and convenience. This research contributes to the validation of a scale to measure the influence of social media on impulse buying behaviour.

Offline companies can trigger the buying impulse to a greater extent than online retailers. Managers must carefully select social networks to encourage impulse buying, Facebook and Instagram being the most influential; Twitter has the least impact.

This study compares the impulse buying phenomenon in both the physical store and the internet. Moreover, the influence of social networks on impulse buying is also explored.

Este trabajo explora la compra por impulso en el sector de la moda, comparando los canales físico y online para determinar cuál se percibe como más impulsivo.

De la revisión de la literatura se extraen tres preguntas de investigación, examinadas a través de una encuesta auto-administrada online con 212 respuestas válidas.

Los resultados muestran que: el canal offline es ligeramente percibido como más impulsivo que el online; los factores motivadores de la compra impulsiva online explican mejor este comportamiento que los desmotivadores; las redes sociales pueden tener un gran impacto en la compra impulsiva.

Las limitaciones radican en el plan de muestreo, el tamaño muestral, y la medición de algunas variables; sólo una industria es analizada. Futuras investigaciones deberán: confirmar que los gastos de envío-devolución, así como la gratificación retrasada (tradicionalmente considerados como motivadores de la compra online) pueden motivar la compra impulsiva online; clarificar resultados contradictorios sobre la privacidad y la conveniencia de Internet. Esta investigación contribuye a la validación de un instrumento para medir la influencia de las redes sociales en la compra impulsiva.

Las tiendas físicas pueden estimular la compra por impulso más que los vendedores online. Los gestores deben seleccionar cuidadosamente las redes sociales para favorece la compra por impulso, siendo Facebook e Instagram las más influyentes; Twitter tiene el menor impacto.

Este estudio compara el fenómeno de la compra impulsiva tanto en el canal físico como online, y explora la influencia de las redes sociales en la compra impulsiva.

In many countries, schools move toward healthier canteen assortments by limiting the supply of unhealthy foods. The question arises whether this gives any undesirable side effects with students (e.g. compensation in purchases from school to outside retailers, reactance) and how to handle these so that operating school canteens remains financially viable. The purpose of this paper is to identify perspectives toward healthy school food assortments held by vocational education students and professionals within secondary and vocational schools with responsibility for school food policy (e.g. school canteen workers, teachers, school directors) in the Netherlands.

Four focus groups were conducted with students at a vocational school (n=25 in total). A semi-structured interview guide was used to conduct discussions. The interview guide also included three school canteen scenario’s (A: 100 percent healthy food, B: 50 percent healthy/50 percent unhealthy foods and C: 100 percent unhealthy food) and a set of nine intervention strategies. A brief survey included questions on the same three scenario’s and nine intervention strategies. A web-based survey was conducted among 68 professionals responsible for school food policy and included their evaluation of the same canteen scenarios and interventions. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Content analysis was done on the qualitative data.

School food professionals were highly supportive of Scenario A (100 percent healthy food), as this formed a better fit with their policies and was believed to stronger encourage healthy eating. They did worry about financial feasibility given lower affordability and student reluctance to accept the assortment. Students were less in favor of Scenario A. Students discussed getting value for money and remaining freedom to make unhealthy choices. The authors discuss implications for policy makers who aim to implement measures to improve young people’s eating habits.

This study contributes to the literature on creating healthier school food environments. This study uniquely examines a healthier school canteen from a viability perspective, including the views of students as primary customers. Given the need to progressively increase the number of foods complying to dietary guidelines in canteen assortments, this study provides insights into how and why assortment changes best can be implemented.

Different age groups display different shopping patterns in terms of how and where consumers buy products. During times of crisis, such behavioural differences become even more striking yet remain under-researched with respect to elderly consumers. This paper investigates the impact of age on retail-related behavioural changes and behavioural stability of elderly shoppers (in comparison to younger consumers) during a crisis.

The authors surveyed 643 Austrian consumers to assess the impact of perceived threat on behavioural change and the moderating effect of age groups. Based on findings from this survey, they subsequently conducted 51 semi-structured interviews to understand the causes of behavioural change and behavioural stability during a crisis.

Elderly shoppers display more stable shopping behaviour during a crisis compared to younger consumers, which is influenced by perceived threat related to the crisis. Such findings indicate that elderly shoppers reinforce their learnt and embedded shopping patterns. The causes of change and stability in behaviour include environmental and inter-personal factors.

Through the lens of social cognitive theory, protection motivation theory and dual process theory, this research contributes to an improved understanding of changes in shopping behaviour of elderly consumers, its antecedents and consequences during a time of crisis. The authors reveal reasons that lead to behavioural stability, hence the absence of change, in terms of shopping during a crisis. They further outline implications for retailers that might wish to better respond to shopping behaviours of the elderly.

The innovation of meaning paradigm is a strategy to radically innovate product and service meanings. While researchers have focussed on the role of product and retail space meanings as interlinked in the pursuit of innovation, no investigation has been directed towards understanding when the two meanings differ. This research explores how companies can manage two different meanings offered through their retail services and the products sold.

Due to the highly intangible and subjective nature of meaning, as well as the exploratory aim of the research, a case study approach has been adopted. In particular, the research compares two case studies of similar companies in the beauty industry. Data were triangulated across three different sources: a panel of experts, ethnographic research in the two companies' stores and extensive academic and practitioner publications.

Findings suggest that innovating the service meaning can be a viable strategy to differentiate a retail offering the product meaning which is no longer perceived as different with respect to competitors.

The study applies the innovation of meaning concept to retail services, distinguishing the meaning given to the store from that given to products, thereby offering managers a strategy to innovate a suffering retail format.

This chapter demonstrates that social business models do not meaningfully prioritize or impose accountability to “social good” over other purposes in ways that (a) best protect against owners changing their minds or entry of new owners with different priorities and (b) enable reliable accountability over time and across circumstances. This chapter further suggests a model – a “social primacy company” – that actually prioritizes “social good” and meaningful accountability to it. This chapter thus clarifies circumstances under which existing models might be most useful and are not particularly useful, especially as investors, entrepreneurs, employees, regulators, and others pursue shared, common understandings about purposes, priorities, and accountability.

DNCG (Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion - National Board for Management Control) is an independent institution whose mission is to check French professional clubs' accounts. Its declared aim is to ensure that clubs that begin a championship campaign are able to finish it without filing for bankruptcy, which would distort competition. This interview by Michel Desbordes (MD) with DNCG president François Ponthieu (FP) questions the role and the success of DNCG and finds that the organisation is now geared towards helping clubs to produce business plans rather than acting just as financial enforcer. However, where accounts are found not to be in line with what has been agreed, clubs are liable to serious punishment, even relegation.